Britain Released 6,000 Nazis to Aid Egyptian War Effort, Nation Associates Charge

Charges that the British have released 6,000 former Nazi prisoners of war for training in Egypt for participation in the war against Israel, and that Nazi Generals have been flown from the British zone in Germany by British military planes to assist in the command of the Arab armies, are contained in a secret French intelligence report submitted today to Trygve Lie, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to members of the Security Council and to President Truman by the Nation Associates.

The French intelligence report, dated Dec. 8, 1948, affirms that two brigades of former Nazi prisoners of war stationed in Egypt have been formed by the Egyptians with the permission of the British military authorities and are now being trained in Marsa-Matruh and Sollum, both in Egypt. Former Nazi generals resident in the British zone in Germany, at least one of whom is listed as a war criminal, have been recruiter for service with the Iraqi-Transjordanian high command, the Syrian high command and the Lebanese high command, the French report declares, adding that all were transports to the Middle East aboard British military planes and brought from Hamburg to Beirut.

The report also states that the two brigades in their lower ranks are commande by some 500 Nazis recruited from among internees in Egypt, the Levant and Iraq, and from among the crews of German merchant ships seized in the course of operations. Finally, it says that a new group of high German officers is expected at Damascus.

At Lake Success, Sir Alexander Cadogan, British representative to the U.N. Security Council, said: “I should be extraordinarily surprised if anything of the kind has happened. I am quite confident it did not.”